Beauty pageants are sexist and outdated and need to stop

Here’s an embarrassing confession.
When I was in my late teens, I really wanted to be in a beauty pageant.
I was a bit of a late bloomer, and ended up being really quite pretty aged eighteen. I’d lost some weight, got my braces off and discovered the miracle of just buying my clothes from Topshop rather than trying to be the kind of person who could wear vintage.
One day I snuck into the school I.T room and printed off some application papers for some low budget local pageant and started to fill them out.
I would have been mortified if anyone had found me – not because I was attempting to... read more

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